


Semaphore Soiree

by Stewbacca94



Series: RWBY Reddit Ramblings [11]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Cricket, Day At The Beach, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Summer Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-12-18 17:41:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18254696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stewbacca94/pseuds/Stewbacca94
Summary: School's out for the year, and Ruby and her friends have the cure to post-exam stress disorder; a beach party!





	Semaphore Soiree

### Semaphore Soiree

The bell finally rang, and Beacon High's youngest three year levels happily waltzed out of the school grounds. Ruby Rose, feeling quite jubilant at successfully skipping ahead to year 10, smiled as she waited patiently at the back gate for her half-sister and their friends.

Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's half-sister and the star batsman of the girl's cricket team, strode out confidently half a minute later. Right behind her was her best friend, Blake Belladonna, who walked arm-in-arm with Sun Wukong.

"Hey sis," Yang casually called out.

"Yang!" Ruby almost bowled Yang over with her hug. "I can't believe I managed to ace my exams!"

"And I  _still_  can't believe you skipped two years of high school!", Sun replied. "Nice going, Rub- _mmph_!"

Blake deftly cut off her boyfriend with a smooch, while Yang pretended that the tender moment wasn't ruined.

"Ruby, we  _all_  believed in you. Even Mr. Hot and Useless over there."

True to form, Blake and Sun  _both_  flipped the flippant girl off mid-kiss, which caused Yang and Ruby to snicker. Barely a second later, Weiss Schnee and Penny Polendina walked out with Ilia Amitola and Neptune Vasilias right behind them. As per usual, the three nerdy types were discussing their maths exams, while Ilia was content in the knowledge that she led the school district's wicket-keepers in catches and stumpings this year.

"I'm sure I did alright," Neptune averred to the women. "I just hope that your father's OK with you getting 98%, Weiss."

"He should be," Weiss replied. "After all, he wasn't fussed when Winter got lower marks than that."

"Guys," Yang drawled, "stop focusing on your grades and get ready to hit the waves! You guys  _know_  we're going to Semaphore tonight!"

True enough, all of Yang and Ruby's friends had stashed a towel and their bathing outfits in their school bags. In Ruby's case, she'd thought ahead and brought a large bottle of SPF 50+, while Yang unilaterally stashed her kit bag with a pair each of plastic bats, plastic stumps and tennis balls for the evening's festivities.

"I must confess, I've been looking forward to tonight Yang," Ilia said sweetly, trying to hide her burgeoning feelings for the blonde.

"I'd love to go on the carousel down there," Penny said a touch too loudly. Thankfully, her friends were understanding enough of her spectrum condition to let it slide.

"So long as I don't go on the waterslide," Neptune grimaced. "I still get nightmares about last time when Nora pushed me into it."

And right on cue, the last five members of the group showed up.

"Hey guys!", the excitable Nora Valkyrie called out. "Who's ready to hit the beach and celebrate?"

"We are!", her impromptu cheer squad responded.

The rest of the new arrivals broke into laughter; Jaune Arc and Oscar Pine were both amiable, average people, while Lie Ren was reserved and Pyrrha Nikos was unfailingly unrebellious. That didn't spare them from the mercy of the squat, ginger class clown, who'd introduced them to one another upon starting high school and bonded them together as friends. In the case of Jaune and Pyrrha, they'd since become more than that.

"Now the gang's all here," Yang said, "let's hit the beach!"

* * *

The group of thirteen caught a nearby bus into the city centre, then made their way over to the central train station. Using their bus passes, the group boarded the next train to the port district, getting off twelve stops down the line. They calmly made a beeline for the nearest fish and chip shop that dotted the shopping strip that marked either side of the main road.

Walking out fifteen minutes later with Ruby's weight in chips, six litres of soft drinks and about a dozen fish, the students made their way to the esplanade that bordered Semaphore Beach. Finding a handy picnic table, they gorged themselves on their food and joked all the while about Principal Ozpin's eccentricity and Mr. Port, who interleaved his physics lessons with personal anecdotes of all sorts, Mrs. Goodwitch's inexplicable and unwavering support of the Magpies that clashed with her strict instruction of mathematics, and her banter with the insane chemistry teacher, Dr. Oobleck. Given that the latter tried tobogganing on a slab of ice down the chem lab and ate chalk in class, there was so much to laugh about.

"So yeah, she had to wear a Cats cap that whole week," Neptune regaled to the others.

"All because she got the winning margin wrong by four points?", Yang replied confusedly.

"Well, that  _and_  she picked the wrong team to win."

After recovering from the resultant guffaws, Yang stood up.

"Now, who's ready to change, slather on the sunscreen and hit the water?"

Everyone, except for Neptune, agreed.

Twenty minutes later, Neptune and Penny held vigil over the bags their friends brought with them as the clock struck six in the evening. Oscar and Ruby were looking out over the water from the jetty, and Neptune swore he saw the pair of them hold hands. Sun and Blake were swimming together, Weiss was taking pictures of the panorama, while the others played a hearty game of beach cricket.

Neptune smirked as Penny noticed Ilia staring at Yang's backside while she kept wicket to the blonde. He just  _knew_ Penny would tell Yang the  _second_  she was alone that Ilia had been admiring her. He and Sun already found out about it, and Ilia had sworn the pair of them to secrecy until she was ready to ask Yang out.  _I sure hope Yang responds positively to Ilia_ , Neptune silently opined,  _the poor girl's been waiting for almost the whole year_.

* * *

Sure enough, after the rest of the group joined Sun and Blake in the waters, the group dried off around seven and walked back to the esplanade. Yang and Penny changed clothes first, and that's when Penny decided to whisper her discovery.

"Yang, I couldn't help but notice something Ilia was doing during the cricket game."

Yang looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Penny suddenly lost control of her mouth as her disorder played up. "She was ... um, s-staring at your b-backside when you batted."

Yang went pale. "Are you serious?!", she asked.

Penny nodded mutely, and both girls were lost for words. Finally, Yang spoke up.

"Did you tell anyone about that?"

"No."

Yang exhaled in relief. "Good. I'll ... need to think about this for a minute, Penny. Thanks for bringing that to my attention."

"You're ... welcome, I guess," Penny responded uncertainly as she finished changing and walked out, nearly bumping into Ruby as she entered. Taking one look at her sister, Ruby instantly realised something was up.

"Yang, what's wrong?"

Yang blinked and focused on her sister. "Nothing's  _wrong_ , per se, but ... I just found out something I wasn't expecting, that's all."

Ruby  _instantly_  looked nervous. "It's not about me and -"

"Oscar?", Yang completed, to Ruby's shock. "Don't worry, I knew about that months ago."

"You  _did?!_ "

"Sure did," Yang confirmed with a smile. "You two are adorable, honestly."

"Not half as adorable as Ilia when she looks at you," Ruby mockingly responded.

Both girls went pale and silent at that.

"... that's what you found out, huh?", the younger sister replied eventually.

"Yes," Yang said in a clipped manner.

"Yang, I'm  _so sorry for -_ "

"Don't be," Yang said calmly. "I'm just trying to figure out how to talk about this with Ilia."

"What, you don't like her?", Ruby asked.

"Well ... I honestly don't know whether I should or not," Yang admitted. Ruby understood; Yang actually  _was_  gay, but a bad relationship with a mute girl from another school had put Yang off of dating for over a year. It wasn't a matter of finding Ilia attractive, because both girls knew that Yang was easy when it came to a woman's appearance; instead, it was a matter of pondering the risks of letting another woman in her life.

"Fair enough, but whatever you do, be kind to her," Ruby advised while she changed. "For what it's worth, she'd be a decent woman for you."

Yang nodded slowly. "Thanks for that, sis. I'll talk to Ilia about it later tonight."

* * *

After everyone had changed, the students piled into a gelateria for ice-cream and coffee. The restaurant was mercifully empty when they'd arrived, and they consequently had the run of the joint to themselves. After they ordered, the group piled into two booths that faced each other on the rear wall. Ruby and Oscar sat together with Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake and Sun in one group, while the other seven sat in the second booth. The coffee and ice-cream duo was enough to send Nora into hyperactive mode, and consequently send the rest of the group out of the store in a hurry. Fresh out of options, the crew began to walk back to the train station.

Noticing that Ilia was walking at the back of the crowd, Yang moved to the back to talk to her.

"Hey Yang," Ilia said happily.

Despite her nervousness, Yang smiled back. "Hey, Ilia."

Ilia's blush was a bit hard to spot in the setting sun, but Yang noticed it.

"You know, Penny told me something interesting earlier today."

"Sounds like her right enough," Ilia admitted happily. "Penny's nothing if not knowledgeable."

"True," Yang replied while nodding. "She told me you had an  _interesting_  view of things while wicket-keeping today."

"Well, it  _was_  a nice day at lunch when we played," Ilia admitted.

"Yeah, but I'd say that my arse was more appealing when you gawked at it tonight."

Ilia practically choked on air as Yang's suspicions were confirmed.

"Yang ... I ... I can explain," she began in a terrified whisper.

Yang responded by laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"It's OK, Ilia. Honestly, I'm actually flattered you see me that way, and I will say at this point that I  _am_  gay as well. It's just that I don't know if I'm ready for another relationship yet."

Ilia nodded, but her melancholy expression indicated yet  _another_  rejection. Once she saw that, Yang felt even  _more_ sorry for Ilia; clearly, her friend and team-mate hid herself from more rigidly-minded relatives. Despite her better judgment, Yang decided in that moment to do something about the lack of love. She hugged Ilia.

"But having said that," Yang opined after loosening her hug, "I wouldn't mind one with you. I just want to go about this with some patience."

"Slow-burn's my preference as well, Yang," Ilia replied. "But while we're starting this, what level of intimacy do you want to have with me?"

Yang thought it over for a moment. "Hand-holding and hugging are OK. Kissing's also fine - so long as it's upstairs."

Ilia laughed at Yang's characteristically blue humour, and Yang realised something for the first time - she  _liked_  the sound of the wicketkeeper's laugh.

 _Maybe this_   _ **could**_   _work_ , the blonde realised as she took Ilia by the hand and led her to the train station.  _I sure hope it does._

* * *

**A/N: Here's my ode to summers Down Under. Goodwitch, Port and Oobleck's actions were lifted straight from a few teachers I had in high school, and that's pretty much the only auto-biographical part of the story.**


End file.
